


summer again

by orphan_account



Category: Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Happy Ending, M/M, Post-Summer of Like, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Warped Tour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 16:53:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13839030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "Can you believe this?" Pete asks "Sweet little dudes on warped tour again. It's gonna be just like 2005.""Well," Mikey says with an uneasy  smile "not just like it."





	summer again

"Are we really doing this, Gee?" Mikey asks, staring down at his hand splayed out across the scarred kitchen table. From upstairs he can hear Rowan wailing and Alicia cooing softly to her. Gerard sighs through the phone, the sound crackling in Mikey's ear. 

"Yeah," Gerard says, it comes out dressed in a disbelieving laugh "yeah I guess we are." 

"God, I don't know how I'm going to do this," Mikey says "fucking warped tour again."

"It's just one summer," Gerard says "and it sort of feels like we have to, you know? Like it's something that needs to happen." Mikey gets what he means, it's the last warped tour, and even though they only played it twice it still feels significant to them. It's the coalescence of everything that My Chemical Romance was, nearly all of the kids who go have at some point been fans and a good number of bands that play warped tour have been influenced by their music. 

"Yeah," Mikey sighs "I know."   
... 

Mikey sighs and leans back against the cool metal side of the tour bus, the sun has barely risen and the grass is still wet with dew, but it's already unbearably hot. Mikey is seriously considering just taking off his t-shirt, which is currently sticking to his sweaty skin.

"Mikeyway," a familiar voice says from behind him, Mikey has been anticipating this moment since he heard Fall Out Boy was going to be playing warped tour, sometimes in excitement and other times in dread. He turns around to see Pete grinning at him, his eyes all crinkled up around the edges.

Mikey is hit by a sudden and dizzying wave of deja vu because it's a sweaty warped tour morning and Pete Wentz is calling him Mikeyway and he feels like he's suddenly been hurled back into 2005. Except not because Pete is far too polished and grown up and so is he.

"Pete," Mikey says and though he tries not to he can feel himself starting to smile. It's not like he hasn't seen Pete since the summer of '05, but those meetings had always been brief, stilted, painstakingly awkward, something about being on warped tour again dissolves some of that awkwardness.

"Can you believe this?" Pete asks "Sweet little dudes on warped tour again. It's gonna be just like 2005." 

"Well," Mikey says with an uneasy smile "not just like it." He says it more to remind himself about his wife and daughter at home than anything else. Pete smiles.

"No," he says "not just like it." And in that moment Mikey thinks he's really going to be able to do it.

...

Warped tour still has that unique, frenzied chaos it did thirteen years ago, if anything it's only amplified. 

My Chemical Romance were big back then, but now it feels like there are cities full of teenagers and young adults coming to their sets. The crowds of fans getting one last chance to see their favorite band perform scream louder than anything Mikey has ever heard, and that's saying something. 

Some kids break down crying at the show or during the meet ups. It shouldn't even faze Mikey by now, but it kind of does. He never knows what to say to these fans who are so overwhelmed by just being in the presence of him in his friends that they burst into tears.

Mikey tries not to hang out alone with Pete that much, but it ends up happening quite a bit. At first there's still some of that residual awkwardness and discomfort, but the time spent together chips away at it piece by piece until it's like it was never there. 

They can talk for hours. Just like 2005. 

They talk about music and their kids and their band members (or in Mikey's case, former band members). There's only two subjects they avoid– or maybe it only counts as one, Mikey's not entirely sure– their significant others and what they did warped tour 2005. Actually, that's slightly inaccurate, their elusive and unspoken rules allow them to make casual joking references to the events of that summer, however these rules do not permit them to discuss it seriously. 

Mikey still thinks about it though, now more than ever. He thinks about Pete's lips, he thinks about his tongue and his hands and his thighs. He thinks about the two of them pressed into Pete's bunks, breathing heavy and touching each other in the thick, summer heat. 

He long ago stopped lying to himself by saying he doesn't still want that, but he also long ago stopped giving into all of his desires, especially when giving into these desires would hurt someone he care about. 

So, Mikey lets himself look, he lets himself imagine, but he doesn't let himself touch. 

He watches Pete play. He sees his tank top ride up to reveal a strip of skin just above Pete's waist band and swallows hard, he closes his eyes just for a minute and imagines the feeling of that skin beneath his fingertips. 

...

Gerard keeps giving Mikey pointed looks whenever he and Pete stumble onto the bus, giddy and all wrapped up in each other, barely aware of anything else, Mikey pretends not to know what these looks mean. 

One day, Gerard finally manages to get him alone. They're in the lounge on their empty bus.

"So," Gerard says in a voice that means something big is coming "Let's talk about Pete." Mikey groans and hides his face in his hands. 

"Let's not," Mikey says. 

"I just think I need to remind you that even though it might feel like it, this summer doesn't exist in a vacuum. Things you do now can hurt the people you love." 

"Fuck you," Mikey spits "you seriously think I'm that selfish? I have a wife. I have a baby girl. I haven't slept with Pete and I'm not going to sleep with Pete." 

"Sorry, sorry," Gerard says "I was just making sure... you two spend a lot of time together."

"Yeah it's called being friends," Gerard snorts at that "What?" Mikey snaps. 

"Just... you and Pete... you've never been friends, I don't think there are words in the English language to describe what you and Pete are to each other." 

Mikey doesn't know how to respond to that.

... 

They're at an outdoor party, someone has started a bonfire where people are cooking s'mores and someone is softly strumming an acoustic guitar. Mikey is standing with Ray, Frank and a roadie named Damien while he sips his drink and casually searches the crowd for Pete. It turns out that Pete finds him.

"Mikeyway," Pete says under the roar of the other partygoers "I'm not in the mood for how loud this party is, you want to get away from here?" 

"Sure," Mikey says, and lets himself be led away, ignoring the meaningful look Ray and Frank exchange. They stroll away  from the party into a grassy field, they can still hear the faint sounds of voices and laughter. Pete sits down and then lies back in the grass, scratching furiously at his arm. 

"I am being eaten alive," he says, sighing dramatically. Mikey grabs his hand to stop him from scratching. 

"You're just going to make it worse by scratching," he says, frowning "I swear to god you're like a little kid." He then lies back beside Pete. His heart stutters when Pete rolls onto his side and props himself up on one arm, he's so close that Mikey can feel Pete's breath against his face. 

"I like your hair Mikey Way," Pete says.

"You've already said that," Mikey says, his breath hitching in his throat when Pete pushes a hand through his hair "I really want to kiss you," he bursts out before he can stop himself. 

"Yeah, I really want to kiss you too," Pete says smiling with only half of his mouth. 

"I'm not going to kiss you," Mikey says. Pete nods. 

"I know," he says and rolls away so he's lying on his back again. Mikey reaches out for his hand and holds on tight.

...

"Let's go to a water park," Pete says. It's one of their few days off that doesn't have to be spent traveling and they're sipping their coffee outside of Fall Out Boy's tour bus. Mikey nearly spits his out when Pete says that. 

"Why?" Mikey asks, his voice sounds oddly strangled and he hopes Pete doesn't notice. 

"It feels right. I want to bring things full circle or whatever," he says, shrugging.

"Fucking poets, man," Mikey curses under his breath, prompting Pete to grin wickedly. 

"Is that a yes, Mikeyway?" He asks. 

"Sure," Mikey sighs, trying and failing to suppress a smile "I guess." 

...

"You know," he says to Pete as they wait in line to get in "this doesn't feel very poetic." Pete grins.

"Just wait!" Pete says, Mikey can just barely hear him over the tantrum of a nearby toddler and the roar of the chattering crowd. It seems like forever before the line starts to move, Mikey is just grateful that once it does it moves pretty quickly. 

Despite Mikey's protests, Pete insists on paying for both of their entrance fees. They both get neon green paper wristbands and walk through the gates. 

Inside it smells of chlorine and more faintly of fried food. Children shriek all around them and their parents run after them, trying desperately to keep up. 

Pete is closely inspecting the map he picked up at the entrance, his face drawn into an expression of concentration. It's one of those unexpected moments when Mikey is caught off guard and left breathless by Pete's existence. 

Unthinking, he reaches out and rests a hand on Pete's shoulder. Pete looks up at him and smiles. 

"There's this huge water slide towards the back of the park, wanna go over there?" He says. Mikey nods. 

They stroll lazily towards the water slide, which really is huge, Mikey can see it rising and twisting against the blue sky even from across the park. The line is shorter than Mikey had anticipated, they stand at the end.

"Jesus," Mikey says, squinting up at the slide "this thing is insane." 

"You afraid?" Pete says, smiling teasingly. 

"You wish, Wentz," Mikey counters. The line moves quickly and soon a pimple faced teenagers is ushering them through to the long flight of metal steps they have to climb to get to the top. 

"You first," Pete says, once they've reached the metal platform that leads to the long, twisting tube slide. 

"Fine," Mikey says. He sits down at the water slide and he's off, speeding downwards with the splashing around his legs and the slide's walls blur. 

Suddenly, he's back in the light of the blazing July sun, being plunged into a deep pool of water. Pete shoots out of the water slide only minutes later, before Mikey has even gotten out of the  pool at the base. 

Pete sputters, spitting water when he rises from the pool. 

"Got water in my mouth," he complains as the step out of the pool. Mikey wrinkles his nose.

"Gross," he says "you probably have some kind of disease now." Pete shoves Mikey's shoulder and he stumbles a little bit, laughing.

"I'm hungry," Pete says "let's go get ice cream."

"Ice cream at ten in the morning?" Mikey asks with a raised eyebrow. 

"Yeah, you got a problem with it?" Pete asks. Mikey just laughs and shakes his head. They find a little stand that sells food, Mikey orders fries and Pete orders a strawberry ice cream cone. This time Mikey pays before Pete gets the chance.

There's a patio in back of the shack with a few plastic picnic tables that remind Mikey of his high school cafeteria. The patio is completely deserted except for Pete and Mikey, they sit side by side on one of the benches.

The sun is pleasantly warm against Miley's still damp skin. Pete rests a hand on his knee under the table as he licks drips of strawberry ice cream from his fingers. Mikey watches him and bites his lip gently. 

It's a golden, perfect moment, just the two of them. Mikey's heart feels so full that his chest aches. 

Unthinkingly, he tilts his head and moves his lips to the edge of of Pete's jaw. He kisses the chlorine tasting, stubbly skin. Pete sighs and cups the back of Mikey's neck with the hand previously resting on his leg.

"Mikey," Pete says warningly. 

"Yeah," Mikey murmurs "I know." He buries his face in the crook of Pete's neck "I'm sorry. I just– I mean, I can't. I don't know how to–" 

"Hey, it's okay. It's fine," Pete coos quietly "Me too. I understand."

...

"Can you believe summer's almost over?" Pete asks.

"It feels like this tour just started," Mikey agrees. They're sitting alone in the lounge of the Fall Out Boy bus. 

"I'm going to miss you," Pete says, he reaches for Mikey's hand and squeezes. 

"You don't have to," Mikey says.

"What do you mean?" 

"You don't have to miss me," he says "we can still be friends." 

"Do you really think so?" Pete asks "Do you really think we can be friends?" 

"We can be something," Mikey says "maybe not friends, maybe just Pete and Mikey. Maybe just two people who care about each other." 

"I want to be your something, Mikeyway," Pete says, leaning forward to kiss Miley's cheek.

**Author's Note:**

> I had to write this


End file.
